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Restricted Play in Learning and Young Children’s Social Emotional Behaviour

The movement restrictions on account of the Covid-19 pandemic has forced every sector, including schools to change the way they operate from conventional face-to-face activities to online indoor activities. These have not just limited the activities available to children but have also had an impact on children’s social and emotional stability. During this time, most facilities were closed, including indoor and outdoor playgrounds as well as theme parks. Children were not permitted to play, touch, or be close to one another. At this time, children’s access to play was limited by a lack of access to a suitable environments, and availability of playing materials. As we all know, in the 21st century, learning takes place through critical and creative thinking. Through play, children learn to develop these skills via technology and more creative and interesting materials. The pandemic has limited the exposure of children to using their creativity and critical thinking in play. Children spent most of their time at home as they were not allowed to go outside and meet others or get close to others (social distancing).





Families were being pressured with both work and house duties while at home during the pandemic, which limited the time they actually spent with their children. Due to this, many children developed feelings of loneliness. They played alone. Lack of playtime with same-age peers severely affected the development of children’s social skills as there was no opportunity for them to practice language and understand the emotions of others. During play, children learn to share things, feelings, and interest with others. The lack of this playing opportunity resulted in increased delays in speech and language development, especially for children without siblings and a gap in age among siblings.



As we know, children in these current times are more attached to technologies like tablets and smart phones where they are inclined to spend long periods of time on these devices. Research has shown that this effects their socialisation with others and their ability to control their own emotions.






Teaching children about self-regulation will help them to control their behaviour by understanding the situations around them. When children are able to control that, their emotions will be better controlled. Self-regulation is important for academic performance. In other ways, it helps children to have a healthier life and be more productive in future generations. To make children practice self-regulation, there are ways can be practices. The basic way is to let children decide what they would like to play, where to play it, and with whom. Asking open-ended questions and engage children in brainstorming activities encourages creative and critical thinking for children to regulate any problems that arise. It teaches them to be adaptable and persistent in the face of future challenges.




The best way to treat this is by parents modelling social skills in their way of communication, initiating conversation and engaging with children in a lot of interaction, discussion and play time with their kids to support social emotional skills. Families need to find ways to have more engagement together for relaxation and mindfulness. Despite that, schools need to collaborate with parents and communities to help support children’s play in more creative ways, either individually or groups. One way parents can support the social and emotional development of children during social distancing is through books. McMullin said characters in stories can be used to spark conversations about a range of topics including managing emotions, dealing with anxiety, and overcoming new adversities. From a social perspective, some families are choosing to team up with other families by mutually agreeing to take certain safety precautions and allow their children to play with one another.

Gen Z children are more emotionally sensitive. AS such, care-givers need to be more careful while facilitating play and pay attention to the way they play with others, whom they play with, and how they balance play and interaction online with real-life. At MAHSA University, we offer a Diploma in Early Childhood Education programme which teaches students about the growth and development of children. The importance of play and how to utilise play for the optimal development of children. This course enables us to understand the influencing factors of children’s growth and development during early childhood and how this affects later life.

Children in early childhood face more challenges than the older group due to their nature. They need more exploration and to begin to make sense of the world around them . Due to the pandemic, it limits and affects their development in terms of cognitive, physical, social, emotional, and language as these are the basic of new learning skills. Through play, children develop an understanding of empathy and learn to manage their emotions. Lacking these, it makes it hard for them to be sensitive toward people around them. They may think of themselves as the priority compared to the feelings of others. When emotions are not being well managed, it leads to mental health problem which might cause anxiety and others emotional risk. Learning social and emotional skills in our Early Childhood Education programme conducted at MAHSA gives adults the opportunity to support their children as best as possible in developing their social and emotional development.

 

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